Daddy No More!

I have lived completely on my own with my little guys for almost a year now. My parents gave us 6 months in their home during the divorce to make a plan. And since December of 2010 we have lived in my Prairie Village dream home. When I was married, there were certain things that only "Daddy" did in our home. The following is a list of things I've learned to do all by myself. (or by SELF! as my 2-year-old says)

1. Lock the doors at night and take out the trash. Simple, right? Wrong. As more of a creative type these two simple things have often been forgotten. Shhhhh if you know where I live. I've left my keys in the front door all night and had the code lady called by a neighbor for a jungle gym that got struck by lightening and was sitting in my side yard for weeks. I couldn't figure out where to throw it away and tried taking it to the curb each week. Whoops. No accept.

2. Carseats. I had to take some deep breaths on this one about a day after I moved out of my old house. David always took care of getting those huge, annoying things in and out of cars. He cleaned them too. After getting out the instruction manuals and spending at least 3 hours of cussing time I can now proudly report that I know how to remove and put back a carseat, clean them, and turn a full seat into a booster. Boom.

3. Train tracks. My brain doesn't speak engineering. (Or foreign languages for that matter). After several frustrating play times trying to design the perfect figure 8 Tommy and I decided that he does the tracks and Mommy colors the scenery. I bet we are the only house on our block with a dance hall on the side of wooden train tracks.

4. Wrestling and battles. There are certain kinds of throw-downs only a dad can do. Yet when these throw-downs don't happen neither does an easy bedtime. So to substitute for some serious wrestling that used to happen every night we form a battlefield in our TV room and jump. Lots of jumping. And Mommy is the monster in the middle of the battlefields trying to eat little boys. We also run laps up and down our street in superhero costumes to get the energy out. The neighbors love this.

5. Opossum pee. I've learned a lot about general home ownership in the past year. I will admit most of the time I call my dad for help. BUT I've also learned the power of google when the garbage disposal doesn't work or there are old noodles from the garbage disposal on the basement floor. Google didn't have an answer though for what to do when a opossum pees in your attic and it leaks through the guest room ceiling.

6. Morning routine. David was kind enough when we were married to get up with the early risers each day and get them started. Now those 5am wake-ups when a kid comes in my room, breaths right on my face, and says, "Mommy, what doing?" are all me. So I have learned the power of night showers, dry shampoo (thank you Lord for this stuff), and early bedtimes.

With that, I better get to bed. But not before I lock the doors for the night. Here's to another year of learning!